Your PHONE will warn you if you have been close to someone who has coronavirus thanks to new contact tracing tech being developed by Google and Apple
- Apps to use Bluetooth signals to track phones the user comes into contact with
- People will be alerted if they may have been exposed to someone with Covid-19
- Implementation has raised concerns over potential breaches of people’s privacy
- Tech giants insist ‘privacy, transparency, and consent are of utmost importance’
- Learn more about how to help people impacted by COVID
Apple and Google are joining forces in a bid to develop technology where smartphones can warn users that they may potentially be exposed to coronavirus.
The rival companies are opening up their mobile operating systems so both iPhone and Android devices can run contact tracing apps.
These work by using a mobile’s Bluetooth signals to track every other phone its user has come into close contact with.
The implementation has raised concerns over potential beaches of privacy, though the tech giants insist that the data will be anonymous and that ‘privacy, transparency and consent are of utmost importance’.
Apple and Google are joining forces in a bid to develop technology where smartphones can warn users that they may potentially be exposed to coronavirus (Pictured: Tim Cook, chief executive officer of Apple)
If a person using the app then tests positive for Covid-19, they can then upload their movements to a public database.
Other users will then be able to anonymously check their own logs against others to see if they’ve potentially been exposed to a carrier of the virus.
If there’s a match, the person will receive a message indicating when and where they might have been exposed, along with guidance as to whether they should just watch for symptoms, seek testing, or self-quarantine.
Contact tracing apps have been used in several other countries outside the US and Europe in an effort to contain the pandemic, including in Singapore and South Korea.
The rival companies are opening up their mobile operating systems so both iPhone and Android devices can run contact tracing apps
The Czech Republic has announced it will release its own contact tracing app, and the UK, as well as France, Germany, and Italy are all planning to develop similar technology.
Under the plans, the phone records the date, time, distance, and duration of contact between the two devices, but unlike the Find My App feature, it doesn’t use GPS data to ensure the logs remain anonymous.
The app will also periodically create new ID codes for each device to make it hard to trace any interaction back to any specific individual.
‘Privacy, transparency, and consent are of utmost importance in this effort, and we look forward to building this functionality in consultation with interested stakeholders,’ the companies said in a joint statement.
‘We will openly publish information about our work for others to analyse.’
A mobile’s Bluetooth signals will be used to track every other phone its user has come into close contact with, and people will be alerted if they may have been exposed to someone with Covid-19
While interest in contact tracing apps has been high among governments, some healthcare workers are skeptical about their usefulness.
According to Farzad Mostashari, the former national coordinator for health information technology at the Department of Health and Human Services, the main obstacle is that apps only work with widespread cooperation from the public, which shouldn’t be taken as a given.
There’s also the likelihood of a high number of false positives due to the imprecise nature of Bluetooth itself.
‘You could be through the wall from me in an apartment, and it could ping that we’re having a proximity event,’ Mostashari said in an interview with The Verge.
‘You could be a on a different floor of the building and it could ping. You could be biking by me in the open air and it could ping.’
Critics add that false information could add further strain on the already-stretched NHS, making it even harder for those in need to get care.